Mints for the Mind
- Raaja
Bhasin
A
Review of ‘Polyticks, DeMockrazy & MumboJumbo’ by Avay Shukla
I don’t really have a
sweet tooth and will happily give jabelis,
burfis and other diabetes-inducing
foods a go-by. There are, however, a couple of items of exception. Chocolate
mints being one. The favourite is, not unexpectedly, an ‘After Eight’. The taste
that emerges from its little green sachet is pleasant, sometimes piquant ,
sometimes provocative and it leaves an
aftertaste for the tongue to examine at leisure. Avay Shukla’s ‘Polyticks,
DeMockrazy & MumboJumbo’ is a somewhat like a cerebral version of the
edible ‘After Eight.’ You can gorge on it, or you take it in little bits.
Either way, it is enough to provoke comment and hopefully, some thought.
This book is a
collection of blogs that I and several others have been assiduously following and
enjoying for several years. The subjects vary from politics and administrative
foibles to the great love of Shukla’s life, nature. This is nature that is both
majestic and sublime; this is nature that is life-giving and which we, in our
great wisdom, have repeatedly ignored to our peril. Almost seamlessly, satire,
humour and serious commentary fuse together in this set of short and highly
readable pieces. With no holds barred, he takes on political masters and
minions with equal aplomb; socialites and ‘wanna-be’ socialites who have yet to
master the art of air-kissing around the aura of the kissee, may be able to
recognise themselves in these pages. Some of the finest pieces come from his own
years as an officer of the Indian Administrative Service.
Over years of meeting
each other socially (without the air being kissed or otherwise polluted), and
occasionally, professionally (where a handshake would suffice), we have become
friends of sorts. More lightly than not, considering that Shukla has spent much
of his life moving one heavy file after another, one may say that he has found
his true calling after retiring from Government. His pen has found a purpose
past a file noting, howsoever weighty that may have been.
It is appropriate to
mention that this is the first book to be published by Pippa Rann Books &
Media, a Member of the Independent Publishers Guild. As they say, ‘…the Group is dedicated to publishing material which
nurtures human values around the world. These values are, in our perception,
being attacked, subverted and suborned – with a resulting decline in the
quality of life for most people.’ They could not have chosen a better person
than Avay Shukla to begin this mission.
